On February 14th, US Vice President JD Vance sparked a stir at a security conference in Munich when he decided to condemn American European allies for censorship practices. An infuriated European pointed out that Vance boss President Donald Trump’s track record attacks and erodes American democracy.
For many of us, this exchange was pretty interesting for Western supporters of freedom of expression. For a long time, the West has lectured us about freedom and criticised us for failing to achieve them.
Last month, a brutal attack in the office of Charlie Hebdo, the French satire magazine office, and the subsequent three by Western political and economic leaders in Paris supporting cartoonists, journalism and “the right to rage.” It has been 10 years since the month. A world where you can “jokingly laugh at yourself.” Freedom of expression was said to be the highest value of Western civilization.
It is to be seen ten years later that political and economic elites from these same Western countries exchange censorship accusations and actively work to restrain or distort freedom of expression in the background. It’s very ironic.
Meanwhile, the majority of Western societies have stubbornly denied that this is happening on a systematic level, and are convinced that this party or its parties are the only exception to the rule of democracy. They seem to believe that censorship and oppression are and have always been the problem of the South.
Having lived west for nearly a decade, I have become accustomed to the big eye response when referring to my occupation. “Sudan political cartoonist? That must be dangerous,” they say. And yes, being a cartoonist in some parts of the global South is dangerous, and the consequences of crossing the red lines can be brutal. Western media wants to point this out and express concern.
For example, when cartoonist Athena Falgadani was sentenced to prison in Iran in 2015 for portraying a member of parliament as an animal, her story quickly made headlines. Tehran was widely accused of not being able to “joke.”
Also, Western solidarity with Ali Farzat, a well-known Syrian cartoonist, who was lured for drawing a cartoon of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his hands were tempted and his hands were broken. There was also. A few years later, news of the death of cartoonist Akram Raslan, who is being tortured in Al Assad’s prison, also sparked a pouring of sympathy.
But Western support and condemnation are quiet when it comes to “a friendly regime.” Egyptian cartoonist Ashraf Omar has been arrested for six months and no one in the West has paid attention. And of course, when it comes to Palestinian artists, there tends to be a complete silence. In October, an Israeli bomb killed Mahassen al-Kateb in Gaza’s Jabaria camp. Her final illustration was the burning of Shabang Al Daru, who lived in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital. There was no Western criticism for her death or Israel’s murder of more than 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
As the intelligent Edward of Palestinian prominent Americans reminds us, the West likes to imagine the East (and other parts of the world) in a way that fulfills its own civilized ego.
“We can talk about today’s ‘Western civilizations’, but with a large exclusion of ideological fiction, it means a kind of isolated superiority over a few values and ideas. And he wrote in Orientalism in his famous book.
Certainly, censorship in the West is less realistic than the global South. It simply has a better palate. It is true that cartoonists from Global South must navigate clear red lines.
But what I struggle to make my Western peers understand is that there is a red line in the west as well. They find it difficult to see them. When it comes to Sudan’s proverbs, “camels cannot see the curve of their neck.”
Still, to the west there are some very clear red lines. They are not called that. For example, a syndicated cartoon published by the New York Times in 2019, in which the New York Times portrayed the Israeli Prime Minister as the dog leading a blind Trump, was quickly defeated after being accused of anti-Semitism. In the next few months, the newspaper decided to suspend the publication of political comics altogether.
In 2023, veteran cartoonist Steve Bell was fired by the Guardian for drawing a Netanyahu manga that is said to be anti-Semitic. The newspapers did not reverse that decision, even after the Israeli Cartoon Association condemned him for firing.
There are other red lines that finely disguise “corporate interests,” “editor standards,” or “public sentiment.”
In 2018, Israeli cartoonist Avi Katz was informed by the Jerusalem Report, who had been freelance since 1990. pig. The magazine’s official statement attributed the decision to “editorial considerations.”
Recently, on January 4th, long-term Washington Post cartoonist Anternaes has left his job after criticizing Post owner Jeff Bezos and one of the comics that criticized his fellow High Tech Brothers. Her decision was announced. He surrendered to Trump, refused. She wrote in a short article published on Substack that it wasn’t the first time her comics were not recognized “due to the perspectives specific to manga commentary.”
These are just some examples of the red line of Western society. Certainly, the consequences of crossing the red line with a pen are not prisons or death, as elsewhere, but ultimately the same: the cartoonist is silent.
What we see today could be even worse as billionaires can buy more media and publishing platforms and decide who will be published based on economic benefits and political convenience There is. The freedom to express, challenge, and hold power accountable is no longer celebrated by the western elite. It is managed.
Now, taking the brunt of Western censorship and violent oppression is borne by the Palestinians and their allies. Pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested, arrested and charged with crimes across the Western countries for committing crimes or even terrorist crimes. It is naive to believe that this brutally oppressed and praised violations of freedom of speech and freedom of speech will cease in the pro-Palestinian movement.
For a cartoonist like me in the Global South, freedom of expression is more than just a noble ideal. It is a daily struggle that we sacrificed for many. My hope is that my Western peers and their audiences will take that freedom for granted and become aware of violent oppression.
It’s time to end your delusions and denials and take action.
The views expressed in this article are the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.